The Northwest Territories government has updated a funding program that aims to help advance mineral exploration in the territory.
At the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention underway in Toronto, the territory announced it is conditionally removing the $500,000 lifetime funding cap for corporate projects under the Mining Incentive Program.
“This is about making sure strong projects do not stall because of structural limits in our programs,” stated Caitlin Cleveland, NWT’s minister of industry, tourism and investment, in a Monday press release.
“The Northwest Territories has vast mineral potential, and our government is focused on doing what we can, within our authorities, to keep momentum going, strengthen our resource economy, and create new opportunities for northerners.”
With the change, the NWT government said projects ranked within the top 30 percent of applications to the program each year will be eligible to exceed $500,000 in cumulative funding. Once a project surpasses that threshold, the territory said applicants will be limited to two funded projects at a time.
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The Mining Incentive Program, which is delivered through the Northwest Territories Geological Survey, provides funding to prospectors and exploration companies to advance mineral exploration in the territory.
The program has an annual budget of $1.5 million and provides up to $240,000 per year for corporate exploration projects up to 60 percent of eligible costs.
The GNWT said the change to the lifetime funding cap is in response to feedback from exploration companies and is intended to “provide greater stability and flexibility for high-potential projects, including those focused on critical minerals, at a pivotal time for the Northwest Territories’ non-renewable resource sector.”
According to the GNWT, several advanced exploration projects in the territory have reached or are nearing the $500,000 lifetime funding cap, “creating challenges for multi-year-exploration work.”
The territory said annual funding for the Mining Incentive Program remains unchanged and applications will continue to be evaluated through the program’s merit-based structure.
